Medical transcription is a great career choice which allows you the flexibility to work from home, earn a good living and have full career control.
As a medical transcriptionist your work will be exciting and vary every day. You'll build relationships with doctors and other hospital staff. You'll have a career that's lucrative, exciting and prestigious.
There are also many different choices for jobs. You can choose to work from home for a national online company or for a local company.
You can choose to work at a local hospital or doctor's office. You can start your own local business with small doctor's accounts.
Or you can choose to start your own home based medical transcription business. Your clients can be local where you pick up a micro cassette (where the dictation is recorded) or you can choose to have national clients where they dictate onto wav files which you receive over the Internet.
The possibilities for medical transcription job choices are endless. You can choose as many or as little of the above choices as you'd like. Medical transcription is a business where you really do have full control of your earnings and growth.
And there is no shortage of medical transcription jobs in site, so you can be sure this will be a long-term profitable career. Here's what the US Department of Labor has to say:
''Employment of medical transcriptionists is projected to grow faster than average for all occupations through 2014. Demand for medical transcription services will be spurred by a growing and aging population.''
Job Outlook
The outlook of medical transcription looks good. This is a lucrative, in demand-career with great growth opportunities.
If you're considering a medical transcription course or are already taking one, this is good news. It means you will have plenty of employment as well as financial opportunities.
Although, medical transcription is predicted to grow and remain stable, there are a few common concerns among the MT community.
These are the most common.
Will voice recognition replace transcriptionists?
There has been talk for a long time about voice recognition and new software which will replace the jobs of MTs. This will not affect you any time soon. There are a number of growing issues and concerns with this software. It is not being used in a large setting and has not yet replaced the need for medical transcription on the whole.
Medical terminology is complex and the regulations for patient records are stricter than ever. At present, the most accurate way to transcribe these records is by trained MTs.
According to the Medical Records Institute, which actually promotes the use of computerized medical records, current research shows use of speech recognition in the medical fields is less than 1%.
What about offshore transcription companies?
Some companies are using offshore transcription companies to save money. However, while outsourcing medical transcription to offshore companies can save money; many companies are not following this route.
There are various concerns and issues with outsourcing to offshore companies. Offshore MT companies are not required to comply with HIPPA regulations. This means they don't follow the HIPPA security and privacy guidelines to safeguard medical records.
In some cases it can be done, but mandatory agreements required by HIPPA guidelines must be signed. And precautions must be taken so that data isn't sent overseas. The overseas vendors must log on to U.S. database to do their work, which means extra systems and measures must be put in place. This can be expensive and time consuming.
Although, some companies may find the need for saving money is worth these risks, most won't.
I agree with the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics and believe the future of medical transcription looks good and there are many opportunities out there for the taking.
However, although the future of MT looks promising, times HAVE changed. MTs of today should start adapting to the ever changing business technology around them.
The technology is there and available for us to take our businesses to the next level. With a few clicks of a mouse we can build our own MT website, set up an online diary or download files for transcribing.
Be smart in your business, keep up with the times, adapt to technology and your future outlook will look better than ever.
